New Canaan Estate Of Reclusive Heiress Sells For $14.3 Million

Property Has 52 Acres And Mansion With 22 Rooms, 11 Fireplaces

For the first time since the 1950s, the Le Beau Chateau estate in New Canaan will have an owner that will actually live in the mansion.

The 52-acre, French-style estate sold for $14.3 million Monday, three years after the death of a reclusive heiress who bought it in the 1950s but never furnished or lived in the nine-bedroom mansion.

The buyer is DeLom LLC, according to listing agent Barbara Cleary, of Barbara Cleary's Realty Guild Inc. in New Canaan. Cleary declined to identify who will live at the estate, but NBC News reported it will be fashion designer Reed Krakoff and his wife. Krakoff is the former executive creative director of leather accessory giant Coach Inc.

The New Canaan property is the second major estate in less than a week to sell in Fairfield County. Late last week, Copper Beech Farm on Long Island Sound sold for $120 million, thought to be the highest price ever paid for a residential property in the United States.

Both Copper Beech and Le Beau Chateau have been approved for subdivision into smaller lots for further development, but Cleary said the new owners of the New Canaan estate don't plan any construction.

Huguette Clark, heiress to a copper mining fortune, purchased the 12,800-square-foot Le Beau Chateau in 1951 as a getaway but never stayed there. She acquired adjoining property over the years, the grounds growing to its present size.

Clark, who died in 2011 at the age of 104, was the subject of the 2013 book, "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune," written by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr.

The title refers to Clark's luxurious but unoccupied homes, including three apartments in a limestone Fifth Avenue co-op she kept vacant while living, by choice, in a hospital for $300,000 annually for the last 20 years of her life, Bloomberg News reported.

In addition, there was a 23.5-acre Santa Barbara, Calif., estate called Bellosguardo, with 1,000 feet of ocean frontage. She didn't visit for 60 years.

And then there was Le Beau Chateau, which Cleary said was meticulously cared for, as were her other properties.

Constructed in 1937, Le Beau Chateau was designed by the same firm as the art deco-styled Times Square Building. The 22-room mansion includes six full- and three half-baths, a grand gallery, 11 fireplaces, 13-foot ceilings and marble and herringbone floors, according to the listing.

The property lingered on the market for nine years, the original asking price being $34 million. The most recent price was $15.9 million.

Cleary said the 52-acre size of the estate made it unusual.

"You just don't find a property with 50 acres now," she said. "It's quite rare and remarkable in itself."